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Three Turkish troops killed in Syrian government airstrike, says military

If the attack is confirmed to be a Syrian government airstrike, it would escalate tensions with Turkey, which is a leading supporter of rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Soldiers carry the coffin of one of the Turkish soldiers killed, before a ceremony at the airport in Gaziantep, Turkey on Thursday. Three Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded in northern Syria in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn airstrike believed to have been carried out by Syrian government forces. (AP)

By Cinar KiperAssociated Press

Thu., Nov. 24, 2016

ISTANBUL—Three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Syria in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn Syrian airstrike on Thursday, an account disputed by Syrian activists, who said the soldiers were killed by Daesh suicide attack the day before.

The Turkish military said in a statement on its website that the attack took place at 3:30 a.m., but did not provide an exact location. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the airstrike took place near the town of al-Bab, which Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces are trying to take back from Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

However, a Syrian monitoring group that tracks the conflict through a network of activists on the ground said the Turkish soldiers were killed by a Daesh suicide attack on Wednesday.

Rami Abdurrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the suicide attack occurred outside al-Bab, near a village called Waqqah. He dismissed reports that it was an airstrike.

The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled. There was no comment from Damascus, but the Daesh-run Aamaq news agency reported a suicide attack against Turkish troops in a village near al-Bab on Wednesday.

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The Turkish military said 10 other soldiers were wounded in the attack, with one in critical condition.

If the attack is confirmed to be a Syrian government airstrike, it would escalate tensions with Turkey, which is a leading supporter of the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Turkey sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to help Syrian opposition fighters battle both Daesh and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara sees as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

Turkish military says three Turkish troops were killed in a Syrian government airstrike. However, a Syrian monitoring group that tracks the conflict through a network of activists on the ground said the Turkish soldiers were killed by a Daesh suicide attack. (AP)

The Turkish troops are not fighting Syrian government forces, and have not been attacked by them, though Damascus has strongly objected to the military intervention.

“It is clear that there are some who are not pleased with Turkey’s fight against Daesh,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. “But of course these attacks will be responded to in kind.”

Turkey’s main opposition party leader urged the government to act “with common sense” and not escalate tensions.

Citing national security considerations, Turkish authorities imposed a temporary media ban on coverage of the attack, barring media outlets from reports that “foster fear, panic and chaos,” and contain images of the deceased or the wounded, or exaggerated accounts.

Elsewhere in Syria, a senior UN official said his team has received written approval from Syrian rebels in the besieged parts of the northern city of Aleppo to allow aid in and evacuate the wounded.

Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva that the UN also has “verbal support” from Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, for a four-point plan reached earlier this month on Aleppo, the epicentre of the civil war.

Egeland said the team is still waiting for approval from the Syrian government, adding that trucks carrying aid could start entering east Aleppo within hours. East Aleppo is home to some 275,000 people and has been besieged by government forces since July.

The UN official said there are currently more than 900,000 people in besieged areas around Syria, more “than at any time I can remember in this war.” The conflict began in 2011 with an Arab Spring-inspired uprising against Assad.

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